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Medical Anthropology 426 and Media Ethics 305
The exit from classes at the University of Nevada for the Fall semester 2023 was, as expected, not on a friendly note. The first to go was the medical anthropology class but the stage had been set by the lab assignments in journalism. There was a possibility that all might have gone as planned, remaining in all the classes, all five, for fifteen credits, for the entire semester, but agenda interfered.
The anthropology professor ran off to Africa, in what a barista friend called a "safari" and the lectures were given by substitute teachers, as if in middle school. No mention of this was given ahead of time, only in the syllabus, which was published just before instruction began, making the choice to drop the class difficult. After one of the in-class writing assignments was missed and some attendance to the sub lectures, the grade rapidly plunged to zero--time to go:
05 October 2023: "Hello Professor (xxxxx). I have decided to withdraw from class"
No fanfare, no parade, and no more middle-school sub teachers. Next was media ethics. The grade in the class was stellar at the time, doesn't mean it is worth staying if there's an "agenda." In fact, the agenda aspect of the journalism school at the campus was beginning to become more obvious, not just in writing style but in content, more like a school of propaganda.
What precipitated the fall from the media ethics class was in relation to a film, content of which was rather disturbing. The objective was to locate in the film examples of where the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) code of ethics was being adhered to. The problem with that was the many places in the film where it was being ignored. In fact, the script itself was of poor quality, the actors stale and predictable and the plot, whatever it was, just lacking interest. Prepping for the assignment, a copy of the script was found, downloaded and printed, which made it easy to follow along with the dialogue. It also made it easy to see the flaws in the story, and especially where the SPJ was being ignored.
One of the more serious flaws: The newly appointed editor assigns a controversial story to his investigative journalism team, usually allowed to pick its own story, which had been published before with little results. The editor then checks with the publisher to see if its a "bad idea," gets the go-ahead and the plot unfolds from there. The film had the usual extremely drab sound track associated with this type of content making it even more difficult to endure. What's more significant is the obsolete nature of the content; the days of the investigative reporter film are long over, relegated to the newspaper-dot-com archives. The film did achieve some awards but by today's standards, not enough diversity, inclusiveness, critical theory and alternative lifestyle.
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